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For Reign’s Mary Queen of Scots, life has always been complicated. But without her husband by her side — and with Elizabeth trying to take her down — things are more difficult now than they’ve ever been. And that difficulty will eventually drive Mary back to Scotland.

We spoke with star Adelaide Kane about Mary’s upcoming journey, and whether there’s potential for a new romance.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Mary has a lot going on. What is her first priority when we return?
ADELAIDE KANE: Getting to Scotland and establishing herself in her home country — starting from scratch pretty much.

How does that change things?
Her life doesn’t even really begin until Scotland. I know we had this whole epic love story in France with Francis and that was beautiful and lovely and wonderful, but historically speaking, the interesting s— didn’t even go down until she was in Scotland, so we’ve got some serious business coming up.

From the pilot until now, what’s the biggest change you see in Mary?
She’s a lot more self-sufficient. She’s not as weak as she used to be. I think she’s still a little naïve, still a little rash, but she’s really had to learn how to stand on her own two feet. She’s learned to fend for herself in a way that she was completely incapable of doing initially.

Does having Catherine back as regent at all help Mary?
I mean, I don’t think so, to be honest. Catherine has always been about number one. [Laughs] If Catherine can help Mary out without taking any skin off her own nose, I think she would, but generally speaking, I think Catherine looks out for Catherine. At this point, Mary’s on her own.

They’re one of my favorite duos on the show.
They’re great adversaries and rivals, but also they’re the only two people who understand what the other is going through.

How is Mary’s return to Scotland going to affect Catherine?
I think Catherine thinks it’s not going to affect her as much, but not having Mary there to support her is going to be far more difficult than Catherine has anticipated. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.

Does Mary at all want revenge on Narcisse?
I think she thinks Narcisse is a piece of s— but one of her best friends is in love with him and she’s chosen to bury the hatchet for the sake of her friend. I think she would quite happily drown Narcisse in a river if it wouldn’t be devastating for Lola. She doesn’t like him. She doesn’t think he’s a good person. She’s just waiting for an excuse to cut him from the herd. If I were her, I would’ve had him decapitated a long time ago. [Laughs]

Poor Lola is stuck in England.
Lola also tends to just do Lola. Lola is not the best lady in waiting, let’s be super real here. [Laughs] Lola likes to do what Lola needs to do to make herself happy. But she’s straight-up chilling in England. It’s a very dangerous situation to be in; it’s like the one selfless act Lola really takes on board. It’s one of the most dangerous ones she could’ve gotten herself into.

When we pick up, is Mary still fighting any feelings she might have for Gideon?
Yeah, definitely. She’s very conflicted. This is the first time that she’s been attracted to another man since the death of the love of her life, and that’s very jarring. I’m sure it feels like a betrayal of Francis’ memory. But when you think about it, that’s quite normal and quite healthy. Of course you’re going to move on and your heart will heal. That’s very hard for her, but that is how it goes in real life. She’s going to have other love interests. I don’t think that she’s going to be madly, desperately in love with him the way she was with Francis. It wouldn’t be believable if she was. Maybe they’ll have a flirtation, maybe later down the line she’ll have a fling with someone. There are lots of different ways of being in love and loving and of having relationships. I don’t want the fans to freak out that she’s attracted to somebody else after Francis died, because she can’t just lie around in tears for the rest of the show.

What are you most looking forward to fans seeing this season?
We got some really cool stuff coming up. I’m looking forward to them seeing Mary stepping up to the plate alone, without having Francis or France or Catherine or anybody to fall back on, her really taking reins by herself and taking charge alone for the first time in her life. Also, Scotland! We have brand new sets and they’re crazy cool. And we’ve completely revamped Mary’s wardrobe as well to be more fitting with Scotland. It’s like a brand-new show.